Qualifying for the World Championship is easy compared to Olympic qualification — there are 24 total World Championship slots, 12 for the Rio Olympics. Europe will have at least seven and as many as nine teams in Spain, but for the Olympics there are only a handful of slots available (Europe had 5 teams at the London Olympics, and one was host Great Britain).

“If I’m still healthy enough and we have a chance to qualify, then I’d consider it,” Nowitzki told ESPN.com late Monday.

Nowitzki was responding to statements made earlier Monday by Germany coach Frank Menz, who told ESPN.com’s Mark Woods after Germany’s elimination from the EuroBasket tournament in Slovenia that the face of the Dallas Mavericks has left open the possibility of a national-team return if the squad continues to progress.

Germany qualified for the 2008 games in Beijing, but missed out on 2012. To qualify for 2016 they could add Atlanta Hawks rookie guard Dennis Schroeder as well as journeyman center Chris Kaman (who helped Germany get to the Olympics in 2008). They also have some solid international players around those guys.

But Nowitzki is the star, the glue, the guy that makes it all work.

The main issue may be age and health. Nowitzki is 35 now, he will be 37 during qualifying and 38 for the next Olympics — will he want to tax his body that much to try to make it to Rio in those offseasons? Coming off knee surgery last season, will he be healthy? Also remember he has a family now and summers with them and not on the court play into the decisions.

We know what Mark Cuban thinks, but we’ll see what Nowitzki thinks in a couple years.